I don't see what Chait brings to the debate, though.
Or why New Republic blog entries are really worth reposting.
As my colleague Chris Orr has just burst into my office to point out -- don't be alarmed, he does this several times a day -- right now Obama is having a hard time winning blue collar whites on the economy in large part because he has an opponent with a virtually identical economic platform. When he has an opponent who's tethered himself to President Bush's highly unpopular economic policies, winning over blue collar whites on the economy will get a lot easier. Extrapolating from primary dynamics to general election dynamics is very dicey business.
If George Bush were running for office again, he'd have a point. But McCain isn't Bush.
Second, while John compares Obama's coalition to the George McGovern coalition, this may not be as deadly a comparison as readers might believe. John himself is the co-author of a book which argues that the elements of the McGovern coalition have expanded to the point where they can form the base of a politial majority. On page 37 of that book, he writes (with co-author Ruy Teiziera), "Perhaps it is time to reappraise the McGovern campaign -- not as a model of how to win presidential elections, but as an election that foreshadowed a new Democratic majority in the twenty-first century."
He was wrong then. You're wrong now.
When the rat gets trapped he is sometimes forced to even turn ( gasp!) to the truth. Lanny davis spoke the truth when he said barack mcgovern was in for a 49 state ask kicking. Nobody else can speak the truth yet, but a guy with the rodent credentials of lanny can.